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MIAMI: Gunmen opened fire on a crowd outside a concert in Florida early on Sunday, killing two people and wounding more than 20, police and media reports said.
Three people got out of a white SUV and fired assault-style weapons and handguns at revelers gathered for an album launch party at the El Mula Banquet Hall near Hialeah, a city in Miami-Dade county, according to local media.
“I am at the scene of another targeted and cowardly act of gun violence,” Miami-Dade police director Alfredo Ramirez wrote on Twitter. “These are cold-blooded murderers that shot indiscriminately into a crowd and we will seek justice.”
Two people died at the scene, police said. As many as 25 people went to various hospitals for treatment. No arrests were immediately announced. A local daily said 20 wounded victims were taken to local hospitals and posted a photo of friends and relatives holding hands in prayer outside one trauma centre.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said state authorities were working to catch the perpetrators. “Justice needs to be swift & severe!” he wrote on Twitter.
Democratic state Senator Shevrin Jones said he wants DeSantis to do more than just pray. “Thoughts and prayers have been going on for years and thoughts and prayers haven’t done a damn thing inside the Black community — or any community when it comes to gun violence,” Jones said.
The United States saw at least 200 mass shootings in the first 132 days of this year, according to a report by the Gun Violence Archive, a non-profit research group.
